India to levy customs duty on solar imports from April 2022

The Indian government will start imposing a basic customs duty (BCD) on solar module and cell imports from April 1, 2022, it announced this week.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) said the levy was set at 40% for photovoltaic (PV) modules, while a 25% duty will be imposed on solar cell imports. The new regulation applies to all projects, including those already auctioned, with no grandfathering allowed, MNRE noted.

At present, India is highly dependent on solar equipment imports and is struggling with instances of dumping of solar cells and modules from other countries, which “kill the nascent domestic industry,” MNRE said. It highlighted the need for scaling up domestic solar manufacturing and potentially exporting equipment to other countries.

Solar cell and module imports from China, Thailand and Vietnam are already subject to safeguard duties (SGDs), which are due to expire at the end of July. The BCD was previously expected to enter into force from the start of August.

India has committed to make non-fossil fuels account for 40% of its installed power generation capacity and expand its renewables fleet to 450 GW by 2030. This includes an interim target of having 175 GW of renewables capacity in operation by 2022, with solar amounting to 100 GW.

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